With every new antibiotic medication that comes into existence human beings are better able to fight back disease. They have an increased chance at handling more secondary infections that crop up because of a weakened immune system and an overall better chance at good health. Did you ever stop to think about how these antibiotics came into existence?

Here is an overview of the process as it is currently being conducted at the University at Buffalo where researchers report that they have managed to turn E. coli into tiny factories for producing new forms of the popular antibiotic erythromycin.

The researchers are tending to colonies of the bacteria Escherichia coli (or E. coli as it better known). They are actually producing antibiotics including three which were shown in the lab to kill drug-resistant bacteria. Just like a farmer tending to the animals on his farm, the researchers tend to the E.Coli in hopes of creating antibiotics which can be better than before.

This is the first time that E. Coli has been used as the base for antibiotics. Before this other bacteria were manipulated into forming antibiotics which could be used for the benefit of human beings. These ongoing science projects are caused as bacteria tends to weed out the weak and become resistant to new strains of antibiotics. So it is an ongoing race between humans and bacteria to see who can come up with the stronger strain.

The term 3D printing is brandied about quite a lot these days, so it can be confusing when you hear of human tissue and plastics being used in the same technology. The truth is that while most 3D printing technologies use the same principle : that of building up an object by adding layer upon layer, they all use vastly different methods to achieve this.

The method of 3D printing used can vary in terms of cost, speed, accuracy and materials being used. The final product is also vastly different when a different 3D printing technology is used. There are three commonly used technologies out in the industry today. These include :

1. Fused Deposition Modeling – here a plastic is fed into the printer where it is melted and added in layers. As the layers harden the object is formed or printed. It is a simple enough process to be used in a regular office for consumer printables.

2. Selective Laser Sintering – this technology uses fine powder of metal or plastic while a laser goes over it. The powder gets fused together in layer after layer and forms the printed object. As imaginable this method is far more versatile and allows many range of materials to be made.

3. Stereolithography – this used a liquid resin raw material which is sensitive to ultraviolet light. The light causes the resin to harden in each layer. The process is fast but the printed object does not have great material strength, but science experiments are on to rectify this.

The concept of 3D printing is not new. The technology has been around for more than three decades. However its evolution through this time has been nothing short of spectacular.The different kinds of materials that can be used in the process have made it an extremely versatile as well as useful technique.

Researchers at Princeton University have printed a bionic ear using silicone and chodrocytes. This could work better than a cochlear implant. NASA is using a partially 3D printed space suit in its simulators to test a new design for a portable life support system.

Archeologists using CT scans have printed out a life sized replica of King Tutankhamun. It was later fleshed out and painted to resemble the actual body. They even made a model of a 1.9 million year old homo habilis skull using polymer resin. In fact you can actually download  files to print 3D fossils from africanfossils.org.

There is actually unlimited potential in 3D printing, as an architect in Amsterdam trying to print a canal house with 13 rooms is proving. The home will be developed using a specially developed bio-plastic compound that is composed primarily of vegetable oil. This three year long science project will surely test 3D printing to its limits.

The human population of Earth is growing far faster than it ever has before. In the past a number of reasons would wipe out entire cities and hold the population of the world in check. However with tools developed from modern science we no longer fear epidemics the way our ancestors did.

In addition the life span of a human being today is much longer than even a hundred years ago. Old age related diseases have been treated, as have strokes and other diseases which people would have succumbed to in a previous period. It means that there are more people living longer in the world.

The larger population requires more food to survive. Naturally the focus on global food production is now much  more critical. New genetically modified foods tend to bridge the gap, but we are not yet sure exactly how healthy such foods are likely to be for the human population in the long run.

Many scientific projects focus on the question of food availability and possible scarcity that we will face in the future. Perhaps it would be better to focus on the food that is currently being wasted despite having the potential to ward of human hunger. France has set up new laws that make sure supermarkets do not waste fresh produce, perhaps the world should consider taking up this policy as well.

It may seem that such a battle is stacked against the little bug, but the mountain pine beetles are actually ravaging the western forests around Mount Rushmore. The seemingly insignificant underdog has resulted in the death of an alarming one million trees. What’s worse is that the threat is spreading right across the nation and spilling into Canada as well.

So how does this tiny bug get the better of a single tree, much less a whole forest? Apparently it is a slow and steady demise that occurs over a fair period of time where the tree is concerned. The summer season sees the beetles boring into tree barks as they are attracted by the resin the tree releases.

The next week the beetles lay eggs in the burrows. The blue fungus deposited by them acts as food for the next generation. As the larvae hatch in the week after laying they also develop resistance to the coming cold. They will eventually turn into pupae and then adults over the next five months to a year.

All that time they continue feeding o the phloem and fungi and killing the tree. The tree still appears green for a year despite the fatal mauling that the beetle gives it. Eventually it will turn red and die, needing to be culled. Science projects are researching how the trees can be saved from this epidemic.